After the lowest race weekend of the 2025 season, Max Verstappen started his F1 Austrian GP from P7, and his race ended on the first lap. This DNF will strongly impact his championship, as the current world champion is struggling to close the gap between himself and McLaren. Despite Red Bull Racing’s constant efforts to improve the RB21, the Austrian team cannot seem to fix the problems. Moreover, this is the first time since the 2024 Australian GP when Verstappen has not finished a race.
While Red Bull’s issues currently have them fourth in the Constructors’ standings, the Dutchman managed to keep close to his rivals. Max Verstappen is third in the championship battle, yet the lack of consistency and reliability of the RB21 is impacting his racing.
Aftermath of Austrian GP
Being already third in the standings after a hard season, Verstappen will have to hope for a miracle in order to beat McLaren. Especially after his collision with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, some are counting him out of the championship already. The Red Bull driver denied any worries as of now, stating that his focus will be on taking it race by race and improving every round. With 13 races to go, the Dutchman’s biggest struggle is still getting the hang of his RB21:
“Yeah, but I was never thinking about that [his title] anyway. So, yeah, we just take it race by race. And we try to just find more performance with the car. Try to learn from all the things that we are doing and see what happens.”
Deciding to ignore the threat of the MCL39, Verstappen believes his car might be able to show more pace:
“No, well, the McLaren pace I don’t think about at the moment. I just think that for sure, there is more in it. But we’ll see if we can find it.”
Despite his Austrian GP race finishing off quickly in the third lap, Verstappen did congratulate Gabriel Bortoleto on his first points in F1:
“Yeah, I think he just got a bit unlucky there in the final lap with the blue flags. Otherwise, I think he had a proper chance. Yeah, great weekend for him. I think he drove really, really well.”
Handling his team, Verstappen.com
This weekend also marked the CrowdStrike 24 hours of Spa race, an annual GT3 event. While Verstappen did mention his interest in switching to Endurance racing after F1, for now, he just sent a team of three talented drivers to compete.
Representing Verstappen.com Racing in the Gold Cup class were Thierry Vermeulen, Chris Lulham and Harry King. The Dutchman confessed he turned his attention to the final laps of that race instead of the rest of the Austrian GP after his DNF:
“To be honest, I didn’t really follow the race at all. I was watching the Spa 24.”
Furthermore, Max Verstappen did admit he was nervous for his own team. However, he was proud of them in the end for crossing the finish line 9th overall and 1st in their class:
“I was very nervous because we were also on the final track limit warning. For us to be P9 overall, and of course, we won our class. I think in our first attempt doing it, I think that’s something that we can be very proud of.”
Performance expectations for Silverstone
With nothing more to add about the F1 Austrian GP, Verstappen did share some more information about how fans can expect the RB21 to perform at the British GP. He made sure to point out that the team will have to wait and see how the McLarens will behave.
“It’s normally a bit better in the high, high speed. But, I mean, it’s based on McLaren. I’m not saying that we are going to beat them in Silverstone, but we’ll have a look.”
Answering another question in regards to predictions, the Dutchman decided to make it clear that they cannot base their races on past performance. The F1 Austrian GP was the best example of that, as Verstappen’s streak of wins did not help in the end:
“Well, yes and no. Painful because of the fans. But at the same time, I never look at it like that. Because, of course, we had a lot of success. But every year is different. Because cars change, tyres change as well. So you can’t say that because we were good the last few years at this track, that it should bring a good performance. Because there are always so many factors that come into play that you have to nail to be competitive. And clearly this weekend we were not.”
Facing McLaren
The 2025 season brought to light just how great the MCL39 really is. Similar to Verstappen’s ‘Rocky’, his RB19, the McLaren car is clearly superior. Nevertheless, the Red Bull driver thinks everyone is doing their absolute best in order to bring the RB21 to a more competitive level. While the F1 Austrian GP did not bring out its strengths, Max Verstappen feels there is “something coming” which might help them challenge the MCL39:
“I mean, it’s coming. Is it enough to challenge McLaren? I’m not sure. Maybe not. But I also don’t want to sound depressed or whatever. I know that everyone in the team always gives 100%. And we keep pushing, keep learning, keep trying to bring more performance to the car. And that’s the only thing that we can do.”
